It seems I'm not just a sucker for hugs, but also for the band chasing each other around the studio... I don't know, something about it is just so fun to write lol

Kandra K: Sííí, Flynn es la mejor definitivamente! Ahhh me encanta ella... De nuevo, muchas gracias por el comentario! :)

Heads up, I have no idea what glasses cost in the US (and couldn't find a good number online). I based the whole thing on what my glasses cost and then converted it to USD - but then again, my eyesight is terrible so mine might be more expensive than the average ones. Hope it's at least somewhat accurate anyway :)

To steal their stuff

Julie's day was not going her way.

Not only had she forgotten to save her English essay document last night, meaning she'd had to rewrite the whole thing in class, but at lunch one of her contact lenses had started playing up. It had gotten so unbearable she'd had to remove it and subsequently spend the remaining lessons feeling like a one-eyed pirate.

And now… now she couldn't find her glasses.

She'd looked in her bedroom, the bathroom, the lounge room, the kitchen, Carlos' room, the cleaning closet behind the stairs… no freaking glasses anywhere. Growling with frustration, Julie slammed the closet door. This was just her luck. Just. Her. Luck.

Come on, Julie. Deep breaths. Think.

Maybe Reggie had seen them? He helped dad (just like she and Carlos did) keep track of his things, after all. Yeah, that was her best bet, seeing that she seemed physically incapable of finding them on her own.

Please say he was in the studio right now. Please, please, please, or she swore to god-

Thankfully, luck finally decided to grace her with its presence - Julie could hear his and Luke's giggling all the way from the garden stairs. Those boys were definitely up to no good.

"Hi, Julie!" Reggie immediately greeted as she opened the doors, turning away from Luke beside him on the couch.

Luke grinned that goofy grin of his, sunlight reflecting back at her through the glasses - her glasses - currently resting on his nose. "Julie, is that you?" he said, squinting. "Everything's so blurry!"

Despite herself, Julie couldn't help but smile back. How could she not, when the glasses and his fluffy hair made him look kind of like a baby owl? "Yeah, welcome to my world, Mr. Perfect Vision." She crossed her arms. "What are you guys doing?"

"Your glasses were lying on the table and we know what you said about boundaries but it seemed so fun to try them and so Luke did but we're being very careful, promise-" Reggie cut his ramble short, frowning at her. "Wait, what happened to your eye?"

It took her a second to realize she was still pulling the pirate act. "Oh, no it's fine. One of my lenses got annoying, so I had to throw it out. I can only see clearly with one eye. Which is why," she gave Luke a pointed look, "I'd like my glasses back, please."

"Awww, but I like them," Luke said, pouting.

"You can't even see anything with them, you dork. Give them back."

"Or what?"

"I'll take them back."

His eyes sparkled with mischief as he drawled, "I'd like to see you try."

"Ugh, you're so annoying," Julie said… before launching herself at him.

Luke barely leaped out of the way in time, beaming as he dashed behind the piano. Beaming even more as he matched her side-to-side movements, instrument between them. "Gonna have to be faster than that, Molina!"

"Oh yeah?"

They circled the piano a few more times, Julie not getting any closer. Pure speed wouldn't do this, Julie thought, fixing her good eye on Luke. She needed to step up her game somehow.

There was the move she'd pulled on Carlos that one time (a light saber fight: she'd been fourteen)... All she had to do was wait for the right moment.

The right moment came two circles later when Luke accidentally stumbled into the piano chair. Blinking, he raised a hand towards his face. "Man, who knew glasses could make you so dizz-"

His words morphed into a yelp as Julie slid under the piano, grabbing his ankle. "Ha, who's the slow one now?"

"Reg!" Luke called with mock fear, slipping out of the grip and running for it, Julie hot on his heels. The glasses were firmly clutched in one hand. "Reg, help me!"

But Reggie only smiled and shook his head. "Nah, man. Last time I helped you in a chase Alex clocked me in the ribs. You're on your own."

"Traitor!"

Unfortunately for him, Reggie ended up getting involved anyway. After a few minutes of zig-zagging around music equipment, starting tickle fights to get away (Luke) and trying and failing to poof him over (Julie), they ended up near the couches again. Luke was tiring and Julie could feel the sense of sweet, sweet victory as she raced forward… right into the last line of defense Luke had desperately pulled up from the couch: Reggie.

Later, Julie would describe it as the wackiest domino effect she'd ever experienced. Because as she and Reggie toppled over, they somehow managed to pull Luke down too but at an angle, which led to him phasing through the table, flailing wildly and somehow flinging the glasses across the room.

Julie watched in horror as they spun through the air, as they reflected the light coming through the still-open studio doors, as gravity sent them hurtling towards the ground… only for a hand to close around them at the very last second.

"Whoa, you have some insane reflexes, dude," Reggie breathed, staring in awe as Willie straightened, glasses in a firm grip.

They grinned crookedly back at him. "Skateboarding has to have some perks, right?"

"Okay, what is going on here?" Alex took a step forward, his exasperated parent scowl already in place.

Only then did Julie realise she was still lying on top of Reggie. She quickly got to her feet, Reggie taking her offered hand up with a smile.

"Heyyy, Alex… and Willie!" Luke hurriedly added, picking himself up off the floor too. "How was the unofficial city tour? Scream in any more museums?"

"An art gallery. It was awesome." Alex smiled wistfully, before remembering what he was doing. He pointed an accusatory finger at Luke. "But that's besides the point! Why were you throwing Julie's glasses across the room?"

Luke spluttered. "I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Yeah, we fell on him… but that was kinda Luke's fault too..." The last part of Reggie's sentence came out as more of a mumble, Julie likely the only one to hear it.

Alex didn't pay him any attention though. "What if they'd broken? Do you have any idea what glasses cost?"

Luke had the decency to look at least a little guilty, but still offered jokingly, "Five bucks?"

Willie tried and failed to hide a snort of laughter.

"Uh huh." Alex crossed his arms, not amused. "Try that times… times, um… I don't know, but it's more like six hundred dollars!"

"Times a hundred and twenty," Reggie supplied. "Also: whoa."

"Thanks, Reg. And yeah: whoa."

Luke looked between Alex and Julie in disbelief. "Six hundred dollars? For some pieces of plastic and glass?"

"I mean, they are pretty cool pieces of plastic and glass." Willie held them up in the light, before turning to Julie. "Can I… try them?"

Julie shook her head with a smile. "Why the heck not. Luke already has." As Willie carefully put them on (they both suited him and looked a little funny - together with his long hair and tie-dye shirt they gave him a kinda hippie professor vibe), she turned to Alex. "And let's get some things straight. One: dad got my glasses for a discount. Two: I was chasing Luke, so it wasn't all his fault."

"Thank you!" Then what she'd said fully sunk in. "Hey!"

"And three: yeah, I might've been mad if they'd broken, but now Willie caught them so I'm not." She gave Alex a teasing smile. "You can put away the parent voice."

Alex scoffed. "I don't have… do I?" He glanced at Willie.

"You kinda do," they said apologetically, handing Julie her glasses back.

As Julie removed and threw her remaining contact in the trash (something she probably should've done in the bathroom because of hygiene and all that, but she wanted that thing out now), Alex let out a horrified splutter. "Oh my gosh... I am the mum friend."

"Only when you're in charge of the brain cell," Reggie said, walking over and throwing a comforting arm around Alex that he was too stunned to dodge. Seeing Willie's confusion, he added, "Julie says the three of us share one brain cell. Alex usually hogs it."

"But if I hog it… that means I'm the mum friend practically all the time!"

"Sorry, man," Luke offered, coming over and hugging him too. And, well, if that wasn't an invitation for Julie to join too she didn't know what was. Any excuse for hugs was a good excuse in her book, she thought, beckoning Willie to join too with a small nod (he did). Especially when it came to semi-corporeal ghosts she couldn't hug before.

As they went to separate a while later, Alex let out an indignant, "Hey!"

Julie looked over at Luke, currently holding the cap Alex had been wearing. "What?" He grinned innocently. "This can't break like the glasses."

"Oh, you're so gonna regret this."

The whole thing quickly escalated into a game of piggy in the middle, and despite the eyerolls and sarcastic words and copious amounts of excited yelling, Julie had to admit she enjoyed it thoroughly. How could she not when she and Willie - officially the best tag team ever - ended up dominating the game completely?

Her day might've started out terrible, but her afternoon was shaping up to be a lot better.

No hate on the mum friend by the way - I'm literally the mum friend 75% of the time in my friend group sooo